It’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of Ricky Gervais. From the original version of The Office to his uniquely hilarious turn hosting the Golden Globes this year to his incredibly funny podcasts with writing partner Stephen Merchant and round-headed friend Karl Pilkington, Gervais has proven to be a comedic master. His directorial debut The Invention of Lying hit DVD and Blu-ray this week and I was eager to get my hands on a copy to check out the special features.

The film is set in a world where humans haven’t evolved the gene to lie, so everyone is brutally honest. Out of nowhere, middle-class loser Mark Bellison (Gervais) suddenly discovers that he has the ability to say things that aren’t true and comedy ensues as he uses his newfound power to get money and stick it to people who wronged him. Along the way, he inadvertently creates religion and becomes an icon before learning that the one thing he really wants (Jennifer Garner) can’t be attained through lying. The film is funny, though the unbelievably stellar cast (including Rob Lowe, Louis C.K., Tina Fey, Jonah Hill, Jeffrey Tambour and even appearances by Jason Bateman and Philip Seymour Hoffman) is a bit underutilized. It could have been the funniest movie of the year, but instead it was just another good comedy.

Thankfully, the special features on the DVD and Blu-ray make up for any of the film’s shortcomings. Most entertaining is “Meet Karl Pilkington”, a featurette originally produced for BBC’s The Culture Show, which introduces film audiences to the man Gervais has labeled a “little bald-headed Manc twat.” The featurette also gives a making-of look at a big deleted scene featuring Pilkington as a caveman and explaining the evolution of lying. In addition to this gem, the disc also contains outtakes, deleted scenes, a making-of featurette and a series of video podcasts from Gervais and co-writer Matthew Robinson.

If you were waiting to check out the film, now is the time since you’ll get a slew of amazing features along with it. I’d recommend watching the film first, but feel free to dive right in to the even-funnier extras.

Advertisement: The XFM Vault: The Best of The Ricky Gervais Show with Stephen Merchant and Karl Pilkington, Volume 1 The Ricky Gervais Show on Xfm is where Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant first met Karl Pilkington. The trio have been talking drivel ever since….

If one of your favorite holiday traditions involves throwing rocks at trains then It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia: A Very Sunny Christmas might be just the Christmas special for you. The special, exclusively on DVD and Blu-ray, brings the same TV-MA humor that Sunny fans love to the holiday season as Mac, Charlie, Dennis, Sweet Dee and Frank relive their favorite Christmas traditions and try to understand the Christmas spirit.

The special gives us a glimpse into Christmas past for the Reynolds family as everyone’s favorite Grinch, Frank (Danny DeVito), gives fake-out gifts to Dennis (Glenn Howerton) and Dee (Kaitlin Olson) just to mess with them. They vow to teach him a lesson of their own by using his former business partner to pull a Christmas Carol inspired series of stunts to teach him what a jerk of a father he’s been to them. At the same time, Mac (Rob McElhenney) tries to repent for his family’s past gift-thieving ways and Charlie (Charlie Day) struggles to come to terms with his mom’s rather unique Christmas tradition. Of course, because it’s Sunny we also get a very nude DeVito exploding out of a couch, Charlie biting Santa in the throat and an animated sequence featuring an elf with no pants.

Sadly, some of show’s regulars, like The Waitress (Mary Elizabeth Ellis) Artemis (Artemis Pebdani) or Rickety Cricket (David Hornsby) are absent from the special and you can’t help but think how much funnier it would have been with a dose of those characters. Still, the animated sequence done in the classic tradition of Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer is sure to please along with the sequences featuring a young Mac and Charlie.

For serious Sunny fans, the special is a must-have with making-of footage and a bizarre sing along that feels like a glimpse into the mind of a serial killer. Those new to the series would be better off picking up seasons 1 & 2 on DVD before diving into the Holidays with The Gang.

There’s no doubt that J.J. Abrams’ Star Trek was one of the biggest movies of the summer. The epic prequel hits stores Tuesday on DVD and Blu-ray, loaded with special features and extras that are sure to please diehard Trekkers and new fans alike.

The two-disc set includes the film and a commentary track with Abrams, executive producer Bryan Burk, producer Damon Lindelof and writers Alex Kurtzman and Roberto Orci as well as a digital copy of the film and a host of mini-features about the making of the film and the challenges of taking on a series with such a diehard fanbase.

The feature about the cast is particularly fun since all the actors expertly handled the daunting task of updating Star Trek’s beloved characters. Finding out how they arrived at Chris Pine and Zachary Quinto as Kirk and Spock is interesting and hearing from other cast members, like Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, John Cho, Simon Pegg, Anton Yelchin and Eric Bana about how they prepared to take on these roles provides another level for the film itself. Newcomers will enjoy seeing the cast of the film and hardcore fans will enjoy hearing comments from Leonard Nimoy and others associated with the original series.

Aside from the cast, one of the biggest factors that made the film so spectacular was special effects. When you see how many old-school tricks Abrams and Co. pulled, you’re amazed to learn that not every big budget blockbuster must depend entirely on a green screen. Many of the aliens were actors in makeup as opposed to completely digital creations and miniatures or camera shakes added layers to the film that gave everything a more authentic feel.

With such an epic film based on such a beloved series it would be easy for the DVD to become bloated with clips about every last detail of production, but thankfully, the DVD seems to contain just the right amount of special features. The first disc holds everything your average fan could want, while the second disc will appease more hardcore fans. So, weather you’re just a cadet or you’ve passed the Kobayashi Maru you’ll enjoy the Star Trek DVD and Blu-ray.

I admit, I was rather late to NBC’s hit superpower series Heroes. Despite being somewhat intrigued by the “save the cheerleader, save the world” promos that were everywhere a few years back, I hadn’t seen a single episode until this summer when I started watching online through Netflix. Since then, I’ve not only watched all the episodes on Netflix, but even caved and bought the first three seasons on DVD.

The series chronicles the complicated and interconnected lives of a group of regular people who find that they have special abilities. The characters portrayed by series stars Hayden Panettiere, Milo Ventimiglia, Masi Oka, Jack Coleman, Zachary Quinto, and several others, are both heroes and villains, and more than a few straddle the line between the two. With more than 50 episodes under its belt, Heroes has created a comic-book-style mythology that perfectly lends itself to marathon DVD viewing. Seeing three or four episodes in a row really makes you notice complexities in the writing and spectacular performances from the cast.

The third season DVD hits shelves Tuesday, and includes all 25 episodes from both the “Villains” and “Fugitives” volumes of the saga as well as a slew of special features and deleted scenes that are sure to please hardcore fans as well as lightweights.

Featurettes like “The Superpowers of Heroes” or “The Prop Box” provide cool insights into the making of the series from big effects like a plane crash to small, less noticeable stuff like the nametag on a waitress uniform. It’s easy to appreciate the hard work of each department involved in the production when you’re able to take an in-depth look at some of these details that might be barely noticeable on screen.

Also included is “The Writer’s Forum”, a cool little tidbit on the fifth disc in which series creator and executive producer Tim Kring sits down with co-executive producer/writer Adam Armus and supervising producer/writer Ron Eli Coleite to discuss some of the complexities of the series. Together, they talk about themes and character arcs as well as some of the challenges of writing “Villains” like transitioning some of the bad guys into good guys and vice versa. Parts about Sylar’s quest to find his father are particularly interesting.

I’ve always been a fan of DVD commentary tracks and all the Heroes DVD sets have contained some great ones. Season three continues that trend with different members of the cast and crew on each episode providing both insightful and amusing comments about the show. The tracks with star Sendhil Ramamurthy are hilarious and provide you with a fun perspective on some of the more dramatic moments.

If you haven’t seen Heroes, start from the beginning and check it out before you grab season three on DVD. If you’re already a fan, then it’s an essential because of the great features and commentaries.

For years now, I have been quite the DVD commentary enthusiast. It all began with the infamous drunken commentary track on the Cannibal: The Musical DVD featuring intoxicatingly funny conversation from very intoxicated stars Trey Parker, Matt Stone, Dian Bachar, Jason McHugh, and Andy Kemler. That track showed that DVD commentary can be more than just describing the behind-the-scenes process of each shot. Commentary tracks can be genuinely “special” features… if filmmakers use them to their full potential.

Recently, I listened to two stellar commentary tracks that inspired me to write this post.

The track for big-budget comedy Tropic Thunder, which features stars Ben Stiller, Jack Black, and Iron Man himself, Robert Downey Jr., could have easily turned into a two hour ego stroking session. Instead, we get an entirely different kind of commentary with Downey staying in character and Stiller and Black serving as straight men. Not only does he portray Osiris, his African-American character from the fictional war film, but he also becomes Kirk Lazarus, the Australian actor portraying Osiris. This is all in reference to a line in the film when the other actors are pressuring Lazarus to drop the Osiris character and he replies that he will not drop character until the DVD commentary track.

Having Downey (as Lazarus playing Osiris) makes the track exceptionally funny as Stiller and Black react and address him as if he is just Downey. It’s also fascinating to listen to how long–and how well–he is able to hold on to the character. In a way, it’s like watching a new cut of the film with real Hollywood actors instead of the fictional ones in the film.

While the Tropic Thunder track is fantastic, the commentary on the Step Brothers DVD is simply outstanding!

Director Adam McKay and stars Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly take it an entirely new direction by doing a musical commentray track, complete with score from the film’s composer Jon Brion. On the track, the trio improvise songs about the production of the film, managing to keep a straight face through out (almost) the entire thing.

At one point, they are joined by a special guest, LA Clippers guard Baron Davis, who inexplicably joins in the singing, providing some smooth vocals to a song about Altadena, California. To say that the track is hilarious is hardly doing it justice!

Things are made even funnier towards the end of the film when McKay makes an attempt to start up a song, only to have Ferrell and Reilly avoid joining in. This awkward interaction happens several more times and the gang acknowledges the decreasing enthusiasm for bursting into song.

Like the Tropic Thunder commentary, this track sometimes outshines the film itself for pure comedy, showcasing the improvisation skills of its stars.

We can only hope that more directors will view DVD commentary as an additional outlet or an extension of their films rather than just narration of what’s happening on screen. The commentary track doesn’t have to be just another throw-away special feature. Clearly these two tracks show us that great commentary can showcase the talent of the cast or crew and add a new layer to the film experience.

I’m already waiting with bated breath for the Pineapple Express DVD release for just this reason.

At Trashwire, we love bad movies. Bad acting, bad direction, bad costumes, bad music; all these elements are important in creating a work of true cinema trash. While there are some bad movies that are just a cut above the rest, Showgirls comes to mind, there is one movie that I can safely declare as the best bad movie ever produced.

Writer, director, actor and producer Tommy Wiseau’s 2003 classic The Room has every element necessary for a truly terrible film. The script is worse than something a 14 year-old would write, the acting is atrocious, the music is ghastly and dated, the cinematography could have been done by Stevie Wonder, and the love scenes are practically vomit-inducing. In other words, this film is sheer perfection of awfulness.

The main character is Johnny, played by Wiseau, a 100% good guy who is too trusting and taken advantage of by everyone around him. His fiancé, or “future wife” as they say three dozen times in the movie, is Lisa, a selfish slutty girl played by Courtney Love look-alike Juliet Danielle. Lisa begins having an affair with Johnny’s best friend Mark, probably the best looking guy in this freak show. Of course, Lisa’s mother Claudette objects to this because Johnny is rich and Lisa should be with a guy who can take care of her. If that wasn’t enough one-dimensional garbage, they also threw in Denny, a weird younger boy that Johnny takes care of. In the film, they mention that Johnny is paying for Denny’s college, but Denny seems to jump from age 13 to 20 in every scene. In one scene, he’s super stoked to throw a football around with Johnny, then in the next, he’s buying drugs and having his life threatened by a man who is in one scene, and then vanishes from the story line altogether. The film is also filled with random secondary characters like Michelle, Lisa and Johnny’s friend, and her boyfriend or one guy whom we have dubbed “Moral Guy” who suddenly appears during the party scene to give Lisa advice about ending her affair.

While films like From Justin to Kelly may have bad scripts and bad acting, they look like Schindler’s List compared to The Room. In one of my favorite scenes, Lisa is talking to her mother Claudette when, from out of nowhere, Claudette remarks, “Everything goes wrong at once. Nobody wants to help me, and I’m dying. I got the results of the test back, I definitely have breast cancer.” Never has a line about breast cancer been delivered so unenthusiastically. The best pat of the line is that Claudette’s breast cancer is never mentioned again in the entire film. But that’s just one of many items that are never paid off. The film is filled with what appear to be subplots that simply go nowhere.

In one scene, Denny is confronted by “Chris R” a drug dealer who screams that Denny owes him money about 800 times in the short scene. Suddenly, the entire rest of the cast appears out of nowhere to rescue Denny from Chris R’s threats and Denny remarks, “It’s ok he’s going to jail.” That is the last we hear about Chris R, yet another plot line that is never paid off.

The acting and writing aren’t the only shockingly bad things about The Room. The love scenes are truly an accomplishment in repulsiveness. In the first love scene, just a few minutes into the film, Johnny and Lisa have sex while accompanied by every awful movie cliché ever made. There’s rose petals, dated early 90s R&B music, slow tracking shots and dissolves through the silky decorated bed, and far too many shots of Wiseau in the buff. As my friend John Shortino put it, “You see way too much of that man’s ass!” I couldn’t agree more.

It’s very fitting that I mention the great Shortino in this review because he was the one who introduced me to this gem of bad cinema. Knowing how much I love bad movies, he asked if I’d ever seen The Room. When I said that I hadn’t he let me borrow his DVD and my life hasn’t been the same since. What I once thought was bad simply pales in comparison to this.

This film is required viewing for any Trashwire fan. While not available on Netflix, it is for sale on Amazon for a very reasonable $11.99. It’s worth every penny for 99 minutes of staggeringly bad cinema the likes of which have ever been seen. I uploaded some clips from the film to YouTube so you can get a taste of exactly what I’m talking about when I proclaim The Room to be the best bad movie ever made.

“With the passion of Tennessee Williams”?! View the trailer here

Buy The Room for only $11.99 here

And watch the clips here